Blogger: Rachel Kent
Many of you have seen this video by now, of a young boy who’s ability to recognize the letters of the alphabet allowed for help to find them when his father suffered an aneurism. The little boy is obviously excited by letters and the idea of reading, and I’m sure his parents and teacher have been encouraging him to find joy through books.
I remember my parents reading to me when I was young. My dad would always cheat and read ahead when we were supposed to be reading a chapter each night. 🙂 He was just so into the stories that he couldn’t wait! My mom and I would read the same books as I became a teenager. It was fun to go shopping for the next installment in a series and then fight over who was going to read it first. We read Christy by Catherine Marshall aloud together when I was sixteen. It was awesome mom/daughter time, and I hope my daughter wants to read with me when she’s older.
We weren’t a family that made frequent trips to the library, though I know this is a great way to introduce children to books–and lots of them–for very little money. I did participate a couple of times in summer reading contests hosted through our school.
I also think my parents encouraged us to read by insisting that we drive on family trips. We’d be in the car for weeks sometimes, driving to the different National Parks, and we didn’t have any nifty electronic devices to distract us back then. On one trip, when I was 13, I ran out of my own books so I started reading my brother’s high school summer reading for his AP class. That’s when I discovered Pride & Prejudice and LOVED it.
What about you? What inspired your love of reading? How did you pass it along to your children?
What is your earliest memory of books or reading? And, most importantly (kidding!), when did you first read Pride & Prejudice?
The Reading Mother
By Strickland Gillilan
I had a mother who read to me
Sagas of pirates who scoured the sea,
Cutlasses clenched in their yellow teeth,
“Blackbirds” stowed in the hold beneath.
I had a Mother who read me lays
Of ancient and gallant and golden days;
Stories of Marmion and Ivanhoe,
Which every boy has a right to know.
I had a Mother who read me tales
Of Gelert the hound of the hills of Wales,
True to his trust till his tragic death,
Faithfulness blent with his final breath.
I had a Mother who read me the things
That wholesome life to the boy heart brings–
Stories that stir with an upward touch,
Oh, that each mother of boys were such!
You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be–
I had a Mother who read to me.
This poem is in the public domain.
TWEETABLES:
How do you foster a love of reading in a child? Join the conversation with lit. agent @rachellkent Click to tweet.
When did YOU first read Pride & Prejudice? Share on lit. agent @rachellkent ‘s blog. Click to tweet.
What is your first memory of books or reading? Via @rachellkent Click to tweet.
I remember summer reading clubs at the library and lots of trips to the bookmobile between library visits. My mom made sure that we had many opportunities to enjoy new books and reread familiar ones. I am thankful to her for that because we did not have a second car and going to the library meant riding the bus. She always made it an adventure.
I have mixed feelings when I see young families in bookstores. Part of me is thrilled to see them reading and exploring books together. Part of me, though, wonders if kids are missing the joy of finding that familiar, loved book and checking it out to read again and again. I remember that my sister checked out Blueberries for Sal so many times that we all knew it by heart.
In my own library, I have a book titled Reading with Dad that is a lovely tribute to parent-child reading.
The problem starts with Good Night Moon and Dr. Seuss.
You find yourself on a rare, exhausted date, having shanghaied the grandparents into keep the first munchken. Looking lovingly at Mr. Wonderful, you ask, “Mr. Brown can moo, can you?” He tenderly replies, “oh the wonderful sounds Mr. Brown can do.” You flutter your lashes and whisper,”he can sound like a cow, he can go moo moo.” Through the entire book you c ourt, ending in a mass of hysteria.
Repeated with Goodnight Moon, How Many Trucks Can A Tow Truck Tow, etc. Both kids love to read when they’re not being attorneys or engineers, although there were pahses in their schooling when all they wanted to do was fly fish because their academic load was so onerous.
And we STILL, after 26 years, recite Mr. Brown.
Hahaha!!!! Love it! 🙂
My earliest reading memory is of my mom reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I think I was about six at the time. I loved them.
My parents took us to the library every other Saturday morning, and I remember starting with the As in the stacks and looking at every single chapter book on the shelf, all the way through the Zs, and reading every one that looked interesting. I think that’s why I’m so willing to try new authors. It’s so fun to discover a great writer you’ve never heard of.
Pride and Prejudice–didn’t read it until I was in my early thirties. For some reason I’d always assumed it was one of the boring classics, even though my mom had talked about Jane Austen. I read it after the latest P&P movie came out.
I have a brand new set of the Little House books for my daughter and I CAN NOT wait to read them to her. 🙂
One of my earliest memories was going to the massive old library downtown with my mother (I am sure I would be surprised to discover its true size if I walked in today). Even before I could read, I devoured every beautifully-illustrated book in the children’s folklore section. I can picture the exact bookshelves to this day. On my 4th birthday, I am told I ignored all of the brightly wrapped presents and went straight to a stack of books tied with a ribbon. I don’t doubt it a bit!
My eldest child is 5 now, and I did the whole toddler story-time once a week at the library with her; when her brother became a toddler, I discovered that he did not mix well with libraries! So we stopped going, and I just order a new book or two every couple of weeks so they can be excited about opening a book delivered in the mail.
I first read Pride and Prejudice in middle school, when I found the one teensy shelf dedicated to “classics” in my small-town library. That’s also when I fell in love with Dumas.
I love the story of your 4th birthday! How cute!
Rachel, I love this. My mom is an avid reader. She’d read to us, take us to the library, and model reading by getting so into books she couldn’t hear three girls clamoring for her attention. 🙂
I fell in love with books from an early age. I read Doctor Suess, Dick and Jane, Goodnight Moon, and other picture books. I loved moving into chapter books and fell in love with mysteries. 😉
We began reading to our boys before each nap starting when they were three moths old. They LOVE reading! I’m not saying it’s because we read to them from a young age, but I believe it contributed.
Have fun reading to your daughter!
Both my parents were avid readers. And I was blessed to marry a “reader!”
My father read for information…when he wanted to know something he bought books…and then he discovered googling the internet in his eighties! But he continued to purchase books for information.
My mother read to us every night until we were teenagers. Our family jokes about my mother’s home library…it’s overflowing. She really surprised quite awhile ago, (she doesn’t use the computer) when she asked if I’d read “The Help.” I had recently read a review and was thinking of getting the book. She had already read it and loaned me her copy!
I still trust her recommendations for a good read!
But, I think the most amazing thing my book-loving mother does, is keep track of the books she gives as gifts to everyone. She has a little notebook…and we each have several pages with our name on it…and she has listed the books she’s purchased for each of us. This wee journal includes her children and spouses, her grandchildren, and over fifteen great-grandchildren!
In my own family, we always read to our children…and they now read to their children and we have the pleasure of seeing our older grandchildren hooked on chapter books. I know their love of books will continue!
Both my parents were avid readers and thankfully I married a “reader!” too! Life influencers.
Great questions, Rachel! It’s not much of an answer, but I think my initial interest in reading happened because I didn’t have much else to do in my early childhood. I was the only girl in the neighborhood so there weren’t friends to go outside and play with. My brother was not companionable and, in fact, a bit of a bully. I never got to choose what we watched on TV. (Yeah, I saw Little House on the Prairie as reruns when I was an adult.) There were no video games yet. I soon learned I didn’t need anyone else in order to read, yet I was surrounded by interesting people when I did read. Hmmm…. Maybe this is why I loved Roald Dahl’s Matilda so much?
Only three of my six children read since the younger three just aren’t old enough yet. And though they have plenty of playmates, they love to read. I started reading to them at an early age. They saw me read. We didn’t (and still don’t…much) have video games. We don’t have broadcast television and are quite selective with our DVDs.
I love discussing reading, and I’m anxious to read the other comments. Great post to start the weekend!
I hear you on no neighborhood kids and the bully older brother 🙁 my childhood too. I only have two kids though 🙂 I am looking into purging the video games since my son seems addiction-prone :-/
I think there’s something about boys, Paula. They’re more visual maybe. My son is much more interested in video games than my daughters.
What inspired my love for reading was being read to as a young child, and participating in the local library summer reading program. The summer program made reading fun! Now my husband and I read to our baby daughter (who’s almost nine months old) as much as we can. She has more books in the family room than toys!
I had a mother who read to me. I had a mother who took my sister and me to the library every week. I had a mother who told us someday – if we were mature enough – we could have our own library cards. I had a mother who related the plots of the stories she was reading. I had a mother who bought a STACK of books at the thrift store and left them outside my room and my sister’s room each Christmas morning – knowing that would buy her and my father several more hours of sleep.
I am a reader and I am a writer because of my mother.
There are so many things I love about this… and the Christmas morning tradition? Brilliant!
I loved reading this and everyone’s comments. My parents were both readers. I remember reading Little House on the Prairie on summer evening with my window open.
One of the reasons I picked the house we live in is because it is just a few blocks from the library. Both my kids love reading and I’m so glad. It opens your world up so very much.
My parents encouraged us to read by using bedtimes as a bribe. We had to be in bed by 8:30, but if we were reading, we could keep the light on until 9. No reading? No light. Of course, I was the kid that kept the flashlight under the covers so I could actually read until 10. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found a flashlight or one of those silly LED candles hidden under my own daughter’s pillow. So proud…
And the public library was my happy place. Only a few blocks from my house, it was one of the few places my mom trusted me to walk alone to, even at a very young age. I probably read every single book in the children’s room. Good, good memories.
So proud–love it!
I did the same thing. I didn’t need much sleep, and my parents sent me to bed with my sister who’s four years younger and needed a ton of sleep. So yes, I read by the light of the window because it was still that light outside. 🙂
Our first grandchild was at my husband’s and my place one afternoon when she was nine months. My husband and I were both at our computers and both could see her. I caught her lying on her back and holding her alphabet book above her face with both hands. When my husband scrambled to try to take a picture, she put the book down. Both her parents and we are readers, of course, and both keep books for her on the floor. We have looked at her books with her, but other than that, she was the one who was responsible for that cherished memory we now have of her.
Hi Rachel,
It sounds like you had wonderful parents! I was blessed that way as well. My parents read stories to us (to my sister and me)and my mom started teaching me how to read before I started school (that’s my earliest memory of reading). My parents were great role models as they both loved to read. Going to the library was a regular family outing and I was as excited about this Saturday activity as many children are to go to the zoo or to get ice cream. Part of it may have been because I grew up in hot South Florida without air conditioning and the library, which had an a/c, was nice and cool, but I think mostly it was the books. I love to imagine and I love to learn. The library gave me a world that offered both. I always went home with a huge stack of books. When we got home, the whole family sat and read for a few hours. Reading is still one of my favorite activities. I start off each day by reading a chapter from a book while I’m eating breakfast.
Like you, I am a fan of Pride and Prejudice (although Emma is my favorite Jane Austen novel). I was introduced to it late in life. For my student teaching internship, I taught a senior honors class in English and P&P was part of their assignment curriculum. So I had to read it and teach it simultaneously. Not such a bad thing since having to teach the novel meant I had to study, analyze and understand the plot structure, foreshadowing, characterization, etc. and that gave me a deep appreciation for Austen’s ability as a writer.
Have a blessed Memorial Day!
I don’t ever remember my parents reading to me. When I was young, I only liked non-fiction books. I was an information hog … and I watched way too much TV. But somehow in my early twenties I discovered the joy of fiction, and have been hooked to the point of obsession ever since. I began reading Jane Austen after my husband and I tried to see Sense and Sensibilities at the movie theatre (a long time ago) and it was sold out. We went to Borders (remember those?) instead. The book was on display so I bought it and became hooked, reading all the rest in succession. P&P being my favorite only because I married Mr. Darcy. Or at least he’s my husband’s idol.
I’ve read to both my kids since they were babies. My son is non-verbal autistic, but even at fifteen enjoys the time together when I read to him. My twelve-year old daughter, who I thought would have outgrown it, asked why I don’t read to her anymore. Oops! That’s what I get for assuming things. Now, I have a list of books with which to fill the summertime hours :o).
So glad to pass this joy to my children!!!
Hi Rachel,
I enjoyed hearing your story about reading on road trips. That’s what I love about road trips… time to dive into books!
There was never a time I remember not loving books. The Mandie series and Baby-Sitter’s Club were two of my favorites growing up. I don’t have kids yet, but I plan on showing them my love for books through example and with a mommy-and-me type thing.
Blessings,
Andrea
I’m so thankful to have had parents who read to me and taught me to fall in love with stories and the books that held them. I hope to do the same with my children someday–sometimes I get so excited thinking of all the treasure troves there will be to introduce to them! 🙂 And I’ll confess I actually didn’t read Pride and Prejudice until after I saw the 1995 miniseries, but I love both.
My parents were readers and as a child, I read everything I could get my hands on. Fast forward to when I became a mom. Of course, I read to them–and loved it.
Before long as a reward for getting Saturday chores done, our four girls and I made weekly trips to our public library, 15 miles away. Our library allowed children to have their own library cards, so each of us would emerge smiling and carrying a large pile of books we chose for ourselves.
I think it starts with Mom, especially, and with Dad, too. If parents never read, it’s unlikely their children will see any value in reading–or in purchasing books, whether in print or as e-books.
My mother tells the story that I came to her one day when I was five years old and told her that I could read the Bible. She said, “But you’re not old enough to read.” And I said, “But I know all the words!” I guess my mom and dad read to me so much that I just picked it up by osmosis. But my four-year-old grandson is really amazing. At 17 months he was reading words on flash cards like triangle, trapezoid, and parallelogram. Now he is reading Beowulf!
I learned to read when I was 4 because…
a. I grew up in a poor village where I didn’t have many toys
b. I had a stay-at-home mom who didn’t know what to do with me
🙂 I’ve been reaping the benefits ever since.
My parents read to me and my brothers since I was small, and I could read on my own by 4 (perfect timing since thats when brother #2 arrived). Every Saturday I was allowed to go to the library after my ballet lessons while my brothers had their swim and karate lessons to pick out books for the week. I used to bring my school backpack to fit them all!
And once a month, from when I was about eight my grandmother would take us to Borders and give each of us 5 dollars to buy any book we wanted. That’s how I found Harry Potter, which is the first book I remember actually reading. I devoured the others too quickly. (Yes, I’m part of the HP generation; despite what people say most of my classmates are still voracious readers and I attribute a lot of that to a book being cool when we were in middle and high school.)
I read P&P for my senior AP English class. It was interesting enough, but I hate reading for school. It wasn’t until I re-read it a couple of years later that I truly enjoyed it and read Austen’s other works.
I don’t have kids (21 is way too young for me!), but I am often the reader to my nephews and nieces, and my mom is and middle school English techer. After tutoring since I was in high school and working the YA/children’s section of Borders, I got good at getting kids to read. On the individual level it’s not too hard. There’s a book out there for everyone; it’s all about finding the one book that will catch their interest and be at the right level, then slowly expanding the parameters.
Rachel, your post made this early literacy librarian’s day! Thank you. My first library memory is when my adopted grandmother took me to get my first library card when I was five. I stood on tiptoes to peer over the counter and check out my first library book–Robert McCloskey’s Make Way for Ducklings.
In answer to your question, as parents remember that your goal isn’t to teach your children how to read, but to love books. Read to them daily, surround them with books so when they enter kindergarten books are already their good friends. Reading together twenty minutes a day is the greatest gift you can give your child.
Books were such a natural part of my life it wasn’t until I started an early literacy program at my library that I realized my experience wasn’t the norm. Soon I was speaking to at risk parent groups with low literacy skills. No one had read to them as children. I gave each parent a free book for their child and learned for many, this was the first book they’d ever had in their home.
Rosemary Wells has written a book titled Read to Your Bunny. The closing line is: “Read to your bunny often and one day–before you know it–your bunny will read to you.”
Sorry to go on and on. Can you tell I’m a bit passionate about this subject? 🙂
I would love it if you went on and on, Judy.
The first book they’d ever had in their home??? How sad. Love that you gave them that book, Judy.
This is what I do:
1. Turn off the main breaker to the house. (No power = No video games or TV)
2. Turn off the Wi-Fi router. (No Internet = No iPads and Lap tops)
3. Light some candles and start a fire in the fireplace.
4. Wait for the pepperoni pizza (w/extra cheese) and the soda to be delivered. (Don’t forget to order some Crazy Bread. Hmm. smells so good!)
5. Hunker down for the evening with pillows and comfy blankets and start reading out loud. (It works every time)
Oh . . . and don’t forget a big bag of Gummy worms and Skittles.
My parents always read to us before bed. (My brother always chose the same book, The Animals of Farmer Jones, which I found boring.) My father took me to get my first library card when I was in first grade. By second grade I was reading fluently and have been a bookaholic ever since.
I once read about a scientific study trying to discern which method of teaching reading worked best. The scientists interviewed the highest achieving students in the best colleges and universities and discovered the method of reading instruction didn’t matter. The one thing all the students had in common was that their parents had read to them every night when they were little kids.
My grandfather was an author, so he read to my mother when she was little. She grew up loving books, and read to me and my sisters. I remember her reading Anne of Green Gables to us before bed every night.
To help nurture a love of books in my own children, I read to them when they were little. We go to the library often and take part in the summer reading challenges every year. My oldest fell in love with reading when she read the Mandie series. She’s twelve now and we trade and share YA books. 🙂 My eight-year-old reads and enjoys stories, but doesn’t have that love yet. We’re still looking for the perfect book that’ll resonate with her and flip that switch. 🙂
My earliest reading memory is sitting in first-grade reading circle when the letters on the big storybook on an easel suddenly became words and I. Could. Read. Wowie!!
Not long after that, my mother took me to the Anaheim Children’s Library to get my first library card. And so began weekly trips downtown to climb those big white steps and choose another armful of books to take home and devour.
Great post, Rachel!
Growing up during WWII in my grandparents home, I was an only child – and the only girl in the neighborhood. My grandfather subscribed to Life and The Saturday Evening Post. My grandmother had Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. She read Gone with the Wind aloud to me when I was a toddler. And she wrote her Peter and Billy Mouse stories for my benefit. My gifts at Christmas and birthdays were books more often than not, most of them inscribed by my grandparents or my godfather.
My grandmother helped tend our local library (started by the women’s clubs on a volunteer basis), and I accompanied her, fascinated by the three rooms full of books on floor to ceiling shelves.
I don’t remember that we had a “Dr. Seuss” or “Roald Dahl” then. But I didn’t seem to miss them. I grew up reading voraciously. Still do when I get a new book in my hands. Generally read it cover to cover in one or two sittings. I just hate to interrupt a good story. 🙂
Rachel,
Loved reading this blog and all the responses. Happy is the heart of a reader!
My parents both read to their seven daughters and as we grew, they had us take turns reading while they listened. We had many adventures at the local Village of Fair Oaks Library, a treasured regular outing. The school library had less, but different books to check out!
Our parents filled the shelves of a children’s bookcase for us to help ourselves to anytime we wanted. And we all did.
But the real prize for me was the back wall in my father’s junior High school history classroom. He let me check out books from the personal library he provided for his students. Thus my love of the Civil War and WWII was birthed.
I read to my four children while they were in my womb and once they were born they joined the others for story time at night. They each had bookcases in their rooms, still do. The oldest is 39.
I volunteer to read on a regular basis for the local story time hour in our rural town. Most of the children know the regular stories by heart.
I first read Pride and Prejudice for freshman English at high school.
And on Grandparent Monday’s I get to read to my youngest grandchild (eighteen months)when my husband and I drive there for our play date!
PS ~ my favorite book as a child was the Velveteen Rabbit, and I read all the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy books.
When I was little, my mom took me to the library once a week, every week. First my parents read the books to me and when I was older, I read them myself.
We had a tiny little libarary and I devoured the books there. It was my way to escape the real world. I especially loved the “Bobbsey Twins” series. I have several on my bookshelf now!
We started reading to our kids as soon as they could sit up straight in our laps -sometimes the books suffered from drool but both kids are avid readers now.
The philosophy of my family is that even when there isn’t very much money, there is always enough for books. When I was a preschooler, we didn’t have much money, but my mother bought a set of orange-colored Childcraft on an installment plan and read them to us. I think she liked to read to us the first book with little poems as much as we loved to hear them read. I can still recall the pictures that went along with “How Would You Like to Fly Up in a Swing” and “The Sugar-Plum Tree.” When the books were destroyed in a house flood, I bought another set and still have them. When my parents divorced, my two sisters and I lived with my grandparents. Every room in their home–and even the hallway–had at least one bookcase. Our grandmother read to my sisters and me every night before we went to sleep—wonderful books like Black Beauty, Little Women, and Uncle Wiggley’s Travels. I remember our first trip to the children’s room of the public library. So many books, and I could check out whatever I wanted. By third grade, Grandma let me read my first grown-up book, Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Gray, followed by “Man without A Country” by Edward Everett Hale. I had a library card which gave me access to Nancy Drew books and so much more. At home, when I’d ask Grandma for a good book to read, we’d walk along one of the bookcases, she’d pull out a book and say “I think you’ll like this one” and off I’d go, happy to begin a new adventure. Reading became a habit–a good habit.
Before my son was born, I bought him a cloth book of farm animals for his crib and a soft plastic book he could chew on. When he was old enough to walk, he’d bring a book to me and we’d sit on the couch for our “quiet time” and I’d read to him. Almost forty years later, I can still remember the last line of a Berenstain Bear’s book: “Mama, Mama, I went to town, Inside, Outside, Upside Down!” When he was in grade school but had to stay home because he was sick, I knew he was getting better when he asked me to read him O Henry’s “The Ransom of Red Chief,” and he’d laugh with delight. Although I was a single mom for years and the money was tight, I always had enough to give my son for him to pick out some books he wanted to buy and read. Every so often, I’d pick one up just to see what he was reading, and along with him I got hooked on the Great Brain series by John D. Fitzgerald. I still read to see what interests him, mostly guy-books like Gates of Fire by Stephen Pressfield and The Art of War by Sun Tzu, and others by Stephen Hunter and Vince Flynn. My son is not married, but because “hope springs eternal” I have a three-book set by Mary O’Hara (My Friend Flicka, Thunderhead, and Green Grass of Wyoming) already wrapped in silver paper for some future grandchild.
When I was in my early thirties, my step-father introduced me to classics like Moby Dick, The Iliad and The Odyssey and other wonderful writers whom I’d never read before like Barbara Tuchman (The Guns of August, and “Israel’s Swift Sword” in her collection of essays entitled Practicing History) and later David McCullough (1776 and John Adams).
Until my grandmother and step dad died, I asked them for reading recommendations. My mom, aunt, uncle, sisters, and son, along with my “reading friends” continue to recommend good books to one another.
Grandma and Dad’s bookcases were filled with many classics, but they must not have had Pride and Prejudice. I read it the first time shortly after watching the 1995 PBS mini-series and loved it. Of course, I had to read all of Jane Austen’s books, plus many more classics by English authors. My husband knows to record every rendition of Jane Austen’s stories, and he recently brought home from the library a biography for me to read entitled The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne.
Rachel, you asked a question about a topic that’s dear to me. I’m grateful that my family fostered a love of reading in me, and also that it is something I can share with my son–and other family members and friends.